61 Glenmore Avenue Lord & Hewlett, 1908
581 Mother Gaston Boulevard William B. Tubby, 1914
NYC IL

The simple, free-standing Brownsville Branch, today flanked by high-rise public housing, was once bounded by single-family residences. Before it opened, the neighborhood was growing so dramatically that the building had to be enlarged before it was completed. Due to overwhelming demand by local children, another site just six blocks to the south was purchased at Stone (now Mother Gaston Boulevard) and Dumont Avenues for the Brownsville Children’s Library. Stylistically divergent from the other Carnegie libraries, the Brownsville Children’s Library was designed in the Jacobethan style, rendering it a sort of hybrid between library and fairytale castle. It is said to be one of the world’s first public libraries devoted to children. The exterior features stone carvings depicting characters and scenes from children’s literature, while the interior embraces a child-appropriate scale and features beloved details, like rabbits carved into the wooden benches. After World War II, the library opened to all age groups, renaming itself the Stone Avenue Branch. The Stone Avenue branch was designated a New York City Individual Landmark in April 2015.